photo by Nick Gerhardt

USC’s Shannon Koestler smashes a kill over the net as Alden-Conger’s Nadean Krueger tries to get in position to block. The Rebels defeated the Knights 25-21, 25-15, 25-21 Monday night in Wells.

USC rides swing to win

By Nick Gerhardt | Albert Lea Tribune

Originally published 03:28 a.m., September 23, 2008
Updated 03:18 a.m., September 23, 2008

WELLS — The United South Central volleyball team was like a pendulum Monday night in its 3-0 win against Alden-Conger in Wells.

The Rebels (9-2-1, 3-1) swung out to early leads in each of the three games, but watched as the Knights (5-8-3, 1-3) later climbed back into the game. USC stormed back to close the games strongly each time coming up with a 25-21, 25-15, 25-21 match victory.

“We come out strong and it seems like we relax and we don’t follow through and stay with the focus of the game,” Rebels head coach Jolene Bute said. “Alden did some good things, they threw us off with a lot of the different plays they had. The key is that we need to pass the ball better.”

USC started the second and third games quickly, jumping out to a 9-1 lead in the second game and a 13-1 lead in the second game, but each time Alden-Conger rallied to draw the game close. The Knights came within six points in the second game and three in the third game.

“I felt like we played really up and down,” Knights head coach Melissa Wasmoen said. “For five points we were awesome — we could of beat them, and then the next five points we dropped. So I guess we’ll work on that.”

Alden-Conger had an opportunity to take the first game when it led 20-16 and had just reeled off four consecutive points, coming back from a 13-10 deficit. But that’s when USC picked up its intensity to finish the game on a 9-1 run.

“We do sometimes struggle with just firing up in the beginning,” Rebels outside hitter Sabrina Bushlack said. “We just need to convert our points faster and just start out with good passing and the rest just comes kind of easy. It helps to start out with strong serving.”

USC had very strong serving in the second and third games from Kelsey Stevermer. Stevermer led the Rebels from the service line, going 20-of-23 with six serving aces. She helped give USC the lift it needed during the middle stretch of games where they team seemed to relax with the lead.

“We get to that 13th point and we kind of fizzled,” Bute said. “They (Alden-Conger) got the momentum in their direction and we had to make some plays. They made some plays to get their team heading into the right direction.”

Krista Mathiason helped get the Knights back into the game with her nine kills and 14 digs on the night. Setter Megan Miller accounted for 20 assists and Nadean Krueger added five kills and two block kills for Alden-Conger.

On the other side of the net Bushlack was busy putting points on the board for the Rebels. Bushlack rang up 17 kills in the match. Ciara Christenson had 37 assists on night and added 13 digs as well as going 8-for-8 serving with one ace.

USC was strong around the net on defense with Lindsey Dahl providing nine block kills and seven kills.

Despite the loss Wasmoen was pleased with her team’s performance in the first game in particular.

“We fell behind huge and they came back just on fire,” Wasmoen said. “That’s what I wanted to see from them.”

She’d like to see more of it as the team has struggled to maintain the same intensity through matches this season.

“It seems like when we’re up we have intensity and then when we fall behind they just kind of fall,” Wasmoen said.

The Rebels face Mankato Loyola (3-6, 1-2) Thursday and Alden-Conger will play Lake Crystal-Wellcome-Memorial in Lake Crystal Tuesday.